Yet another change in SNP terminology

Now it appears they don't like the word 'nationalist' either

THE SNP’s re-writing of English – still the language spoken by most Scots – continues apace. Twenty-four hours after it was revealed that the Nats don’t like the word “independence” came news that they don’t like the word “nationalist”, either.

Whilst it was Alex Salmond who banned the former, saying that the term “independent Scotland” was better than “independence” with the voters, it is Angus Robertson, the Westminster leader, who is now eschewing “nationalism”. Far from breaking up Britain and ending the United Kingdom what they’re now telling the world they’re up to appears to be not divorce but something akin to saying a fond, if temporary, adieu to a short-lived romantic arrangement.

As such it is complete and utter hokum and is of a piece with the rest of the nonsense that old Angus spouts. He means well – he really does – but he cannot help but speak the truth, even if it’s couched in the most conciliatory of terms.

In an interview in Vienna, Mr Robertson painted a picture of a Scotland that owed more to Brigadoon than to the country in which most of us live. For instance, and in these responses I am relying on translations provided by my friends in the Labour Party, Mr Robertson insisted that Scotland was a much more Euro-friendly country than is the rest of the UK.

Why and from where he gets this information, I do not know, but after 20 years of reporting politics in England and a similar period of doing likewise in Scotland I have noticed absolutely no difference in attitude, amongst the peoples on either side of the border, towards the EU and its manifestations. Scots are just as miffed about the rules that decree straight bananas, for instance, as are the English.

And if you can find me a Scot who’s still in favour of the Euro, I shall buy him, or her, a pint … or, sorry, a half litre.

There is a myth that’s put about by my Nat friends that we Scots like Europe much more than do our English neighbours. It’s rubbish; we’re as suspicious of the EU’s controlling instincts as are the English but the Nats like to pretend differently for the simple reason that they think it gets the principal EU countries, like Germany and France, on the side of an independent Scotland.

Oh yes, and all that stuff about the “Auld Alliance” with France; well, after 20 years of holidays in rural France, I’ve yet to find a Frenchman who’s heard of it.

Mr Salmond and the SNP focus groups have found that the term “independence” scores badly with Scottish voters, much less well than “independent Scotland” and so, if you wish to annoy the Nats, you know which one to use.

But for the German-speaking Angus Robertson to also ban the word “nationalist” — presumably because of its Germanic connotations — is quite simply hard luck. In English it does what it says on the tin. If he doesn’t like “nationalist”, what about “separatist”?

Mr Robertson is one of the more honest, if romantic, advocates of breaking up Britain. Much more so than, say, Bruce Crawford who pretends he’s an expert on the effect of the abandonment on Scottish soil of the UK’s nuclear deterrent. He’s not and it shows, even though he calls in aid all the churches, trades unions and “civic Scotland” – whatever that is – against the stationing of nuclear weapons in Scotland.

All that the government is planning is a new generation of nuclear powered submarines IN CASE it’s decided to equip them with the Trident replacement missiles.

As both Philip Hammond, the Defence Secretary, and Sir Ming Campbell, the former Lib Dem leader, have insisted, what they’re doing is providing for the launch platforms for the Trident replacement.

And I’ll tell you what – I’ll bet we don’t get a new super-MIRV system. I bet it’s something like a SLCM effort. And why not — Cruise is all we need.